I've posted this to Support> Product Suggestions . . . but I post it here in hopes others can help refine my explanation. SoFo ask several questions;
Q. What feature would you like to see?
A. SoFo, you've heard it before, I am certain . . . yet this is very important to me as a video editor - a feature I need are "Reels" along with "Racks" for video clips.
I'm not necessarily needing this within Media Pool (though it 'can' be there), but more as an adjunct to Media Pool. That's because though I've never had a Media Pool in an NLE, I can already see where the concept can be useful. That said, Vegas needs Reels (and Racks) too.
Q. How would this feature benefit you?
A. I work with visual media originating on videotape (or film for that matter) that are associated with a particular cassette. I form an visual-association with the picon as representative of the contents of the reel which starts as soon as I first log the footage within VidCap.
I continue to repeat the process (of logging) for however many tapes there are for the project . . . strengthening the visual-association! Meanwhile, as I log footage I am actually assembling a program in my mind! It's worth noting complex projects can have many, many reels some with as many as 100 clips. By the time I am finished, my visual-association with the picons is immensely stroger than a name-association (i.e. text).
Where do Reels and Racks come into play? They're important in the mental sorting process a video-editor goes through as he creates his program on the timeline - by looking at the picons that represent the clips within reels.
While some movies are created with a rigid script into which a textual name-based organization (such as the one provided by Explorer works well), freeform programs, i.e. many documentaries, are created and crafted by getting an overview of all the clips as a rough sorting tool. Implicit in this is the actual 'need' to be able to minimize or open multiple reels in order to "see" the pertinent picons - remember the visiual-association formed by logging? This is part of how an editor of visual-media works to tell a storyl.
How are Reels and Racks different, and why do I use both? To review; Reels are associated with a particular piece of media (perhaps a miniDV videocassette) and contain picons. Reels look much like VidCap - with picons, names, and in/out points. The clips within a Reel are tied to that reel because they actually hold a physical place on the particular media.
I can edit directly by taking individual clips out of various reels straight to the timeline and thus quickly make a rought cut of my movie (or segment of a program). This works for much of the editing.
However, when projects are more complex, editing can take the form of working on differnt segments at a time (which is why we need to be able to join multiple .veg files) and/or by introducing the use of Racks.
Racks, unlike Reels, can contain clips from multiple reels - however, you can never drag a clip from reel1 to reel2 because the clip is physically 'on' reel1, but I 'could' add various clips from reel1-N to a Rack, let's call it rack1.
Racks are a useful tool for the video editor since it permits moving clips around within the rack (perhaps as a prelude to loading them all to the timeline - either maually or via an auto assemble process if the reels/racks have the mechanism to do so). Using racks are another way video-editors work.
Yet which method is chosen, i.e. working on individual segments, or using racks, depends on the complexity of the project.
Hence, racks can hold copies of the clips within reels, but clips within reels are tied to their respective reels only. Racks can also hold graphics, audio clips, whatever.
It's also useful if the individual clips (within reels and bins) could be sorted. Clips could be sorted ascending, or descending and by; reel name (if you are within a rack), clip-names, comments, scenes, takes, shots, mark-in, or mark-out points.
I also benefit as an editor because I can more quickly get up to speed if I leave a project for a few weeks, as upon coming back to it, the picons brings return me to the mind-set of the program taking shape - because of the visual association - and it's much more efficient to simply see a picon (to remember what the clip is about) rather than hope the name of the clip was descriptive enough!
Q. Have you ever seen this feature before? If so, where?
A. That's easy - Final Cut, SoftImage, a Henry workstation, Premier, even my old mainstay NLE, a FAST VM does this. From Media 100 and Avids to the Liquid line Pinnacle acquired when they bought out FAST, to low-end editors like iMovie features this paradigm. It took the world of linear editing and edit decision lists (EDL) into an accelerated recognition process driven by visual cues of the picons.
Lacking these functions are the reason so many are passionate in begging you folks to add folder view to Vegas Video's Media Pool - it's perceived as a flaw.
SoFo, I've come to admire and appreciate the workflow of Vegas Video and hope to see it become more sophisticated for the selfish reason that I don't want to change again anytime soon to another NLE. This is important.
John Beech
Q. What feature would you like to see?
A. SoFo, you've heard it before, I am certain . . . yet this is very important to me as a video editor - a feature I need are "Reels" along with "Racks" for video clips.
I'm not necessarily needing this within Media Pool (though it 'can' be there), but more as an adjunct to Media Pool. That's because though I've never had a Media Pool in an NLE, I can already see where the concept can be useful. That said, Vegas needs Reels (and Racks) too.
Q. How would this feature benefit you?
A. I work with visual media originating on videotape (or film for that matter) that are associated with a particular cassette. I form an visual-association with the picon as representative of the contents of the reel which starts as soon as I first log the footage within VidCap.
I continue to repeat the process (of logging) for however many tapes there are for the project . . . strengthening the visual-association! Meanwhile, as I log footage I am actually assembling a program in my mind! It's worth noting complex projects can have many, many reels some with as many as 100 clips. By the time I am finished, my visual-association with the picons is immensely stroger than a name-association (i.e. text).
Where do Reels and Racks come into play? They're important in the mental sorting process a video-editor goes through as he creates his program on the timeline - by looking at the picons that represent the clips within reels.
While some movies are created with a rigid script into which a textual name-based organization (such as the one provided by Explorer works well), freeform programs, i.e. many documentaries, are created and crafted by getting an overview of all the clips as a rough sorting tool. Implicit in this is the actual 'need' to be able to minimize or open multiple reels in order to "see" the pertinent picons - remember the visiual-association formed by logging? This is part of how an editor of visual-media works to tell a storyl.
How are Reels and Racks different, and why do I use both? To review; Reels are associated with a particular piece of media (perhaps a miniDV videocassette) and contain picons. Reels look much like VidCap - with picons, names, and in/out points. The clips within a Reel are tied to that reel because they actually hold a physical place on the particular media.
I can edit directly by taking individual clips out of various reels straight to the timeline and thus quickly make a rought cut of my movie (or segment of a program). This works for much of the editing.
However, when projects are more complex, editing can take the form of working on differnt segments at a time (which is why we need to be able to join multiple .veg files) and/or by introducing the use of Racks.
Racks, unlike Reels, can contain clips from multiple reels - however, you can never drag a clip from reel1 to reel2 because the clip is physically 'on' reel1, but I 'could' add various clips from reel1-N to a Rack, let's call it rack1.
Racks are a useful tool for the video editor since it permits moving clips around within the rack (perhaps as a prelude to loading them all to the timeline - either maually or via an auto assemble process if the reels/racks have the mechanism to do so). Using racks are another way video-editors work.
Yet which method is chosen, i.e. working on individual segments, or using racks, depends on the complexity of the project.
Hence, racks can hold copies of the clips within reels, but clips within reels are tied to their respective reels only. Racks can also hold graphics, audio clips, whatever.
It's also useful if the individual clips (within reels and bins) could be sorted. Clips could be sorted ascending, or descending and by; reel name (if you are within a rack), clip-names, comments, scenes, takes, shots, mark-in, or mark-out points.
I also benefit as an editor because I can more quickly get up to speed if I leave a project for a few weeks, as upon coming back to it, the picons brings return me to the mind-set of the program taking shape - because of the visual association - and it's much more efficient to simply see a picon (to remember what the clip is about) rather than hope the name of the clip was descriptive enough!
Q. Have you ever seen this feature before? If so, where?
A. That's easy - Final Cut, SoftImage, a Henry workstation, Premier, even my old mainstay NLE, a FAST VM does this. From Media 100 and Avids to the Liquid line Pinnacle acquired when they bought out FAST, to low-end editors like iMovie features this paradigm. It took the world of linear editing and edit decision lists (EDL) into an accelerated recognition process driven by visual cues of the picons.
Lacking these functions are the reason so many are passionate in begging you folks to add folder view to Vegas Video's Media Pool - it's perceived as a flaw.
SoFo, I've come to admire and appreciate the workflow of Vegas Video and hope to see it become more sophisticated for the selfish reason that I don't want to change again anytime soon to another NLE. This is important.
John Beech